Well, I'm impressed on how popular is this second life concept. A few months ago I was watching an episode of CSI New York in which the case they were investigating was entirely based on Second Life... But I always though it was a game! And now I know I was wrong.
I didn't know so many companies were even present in Second Life to promote their services and provide some sort of customer service.
I think that what our library is doing so far is ok since a presence on Second Life has been established and we are contributing to this virtual learning world with projects like the Central Florida Memory Project. But we could do more in the future like offering our classes on Second Life, present the Meet the Author Programs but virtually and maybe we can arrange with authors that already have a resident avatar on Second Life to be on them first. It would be nice to offer a section in which they can pay their fines or buy books from our book store. Of course all of this has to be located on an Island for this Library and obviously the virtual building, that's why I say, 'in the future'. We should even have a presence on the Teen Second Life to promote more of our library services we have for teens, maybe we can even get 'virtual' Teen Volunteers to be present there as well and they can share their experiences at the library.
Definitely the Second Life concept is something that cannot be taken for granted because it hasn't stop growing and everyday even more widely know companies are there as well providing services to their customers. I think that since the library is an institution that provides information and is committed to: 'connect our changing community to the evolving world of ideas, information and technology. Through continuous innovation, the Orange County Library System will create a well informed, well connected community, making Orange County a great place to live, learn, work, and play.'-(as stated in our mission statement) we should continue looking into more ways of being present in Second Life. It's something different than what we are used to see, our community has changed by this evolving way to interact through technology, it's a place in which we can create anything without having necessarily to be limited by budgets or resources. And it can be used to keep us connected to a virtual world in which we can virtually live, learn work and play with this growing community!
Check out how libraries can be seen and toured in Second Life!
Check out Second Life Reference
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Fun 2.5
14 years ago
